Glycemic Index and Pregnancy: A Systematic Literature Review

Table 1

Characteristics and outcome measures of studies examining the association between glycemic index/glycemic load and pregnancy outcomes in healthy pregnancies.

Study	Study characteristics	Exposure variables	Outcome variables	Summary of findings
Epidemiological studies
Scholl et al. [16] 2004	𝑛=1,082; Age: ≤18 y to 32 y; Dietary assessment: 24-hour recall at 20- and 28-week gestation	GI by quintiles Q1: <50 versus Q5: >60	Birth weight SGA/LGA births	Dietary GI in the lowest quintile was associated with a statistically significant reduction of 116 g in birth weight, while dietary GI in the highest quintile was associated with a nonsignificant increase in birth weight (50.0 g) after adjustment for potential confounders.; Compared to subjects with a dietary GI in Q3, those with a dietary GI in the lowest quintile had a 75% increased risk of giving birth to an SGA infant. No significant association was found between GI (in quintiles) and risk of LGA.
Deierlein et al. [17] 2008	𝑛=1,231; Age: ≥16 y; Dietary assessment: semiquantitative FFQ at 26–29 weeks	GL by quartiles Q1: <112 versus Q4: >175.	Total gestational weight gain (TGWG) and weight gain ratio (WGR)	No association between GL and TGWG/WGR was found.
Intervention studies
Clapp [18] 1997	𝑛=12; Mean age: 34.5	Aboriginal carbohydrate (low glycemic; GI=50) diet versus cafeteria carbohydrate (high glycemic; GI=59) diet; together with exercise	Placental growth; Birth weight; Neonatal anthropometrics; Maternal weight gain	Women who followed the cafeteria diet had a larger placental weight at delivery (575±52 g versus 396±18 g; 𝑃<.001).; These women also gave birth to larger infants (𝑃<.01) and gained more weight during pregnancy (𝑃<.01)
Moses et al. [19] 2006	𝑛=62; Age: 21–40 y; 16–20 week gestation at baseline	Low GI diet (GI=51) versus high GI (GI=58) diet	Method of delivery; Maternal weight gain; Birth weight; Birth centile; Head circumference; Ponderal index; Prevalence of; LGA/SGA	Women who followed low-GI diet gave birth to lighter infants (𝑃=.051), had lower birth centile (𝑃=.005), and had a lower prevalence of LGA (𝑃=.01). Their infants also had a lower ponderal index (𝑃=.03).; There was a nonsignificant increase of SGA prevalence.
Moses et al. [20] 2007	𝑛=43; Followup of Moses et al. [19] 2006; Age of infant: 16–29 months	Same as Moses et al. [19] 2006	GI of current diet; Infant size	No difference was found in current dietary GI between subjects who followed the low-GI diet and those who followed the high-GI diet during pregnancy.; LGA was a significant predictor of current infant weight (𝑃=.037)

FFQ: food frequency questionnaire; SGA: small for gestational age (≤10th birth weight percentile); LGA: large for gestational age (≥90th birth weight percentile).